Countywide road millage proposal dead

CONWAY - Emmet County road commissioner Frank Zulski Jr. declared an end to the road commission's effort to promote a three-year, 1-mill countywide millage for roads, and plan instead to devote its efforts to supporting Little Traverse Township supervisor Bill Dohm's proposal for a township-based initiative.

Road commission engineer-manager Brian Gutowski told the road commissioners at their meeting Friday that he had received very little support to a letter he had sent to 21 governmental agencies asking whether they would support a countywide road millage or a variation of it.

All 10 of the townships responding said they were against the proposal, while only the villages of Alanson and Mackinaw City supported it. Harbor Springs and Petoskey said they had no opinion and the others said they needed more information or would respond after their April meetings.

Zulski said he was pleased that the process that began a year ago with the countywide road millage proposal had led to the Dohm suggestion, which he termed new, imaginative and appropriate.

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"When this process started a year ago we were looking at a countywide millage, because we knew that the local roads were going to get worse and we were going to have to fund them somehow," Zulski said.

"We knew that the one-mill proposal had a lot of flaws in it, but at the time we were looking at it, it was the only thing we saw."

"But now the Dohm suggestion does the one thing that Bill commented on and I believe in. It gets your money back to the local level, it gets it as low as it can get, and that local entity has the right to levy that mill.

"So I'm happy where we've ended."

Dohm, a member of the county's tax allocation board, suggested at a tax board meeting last Monday that reconstruction of local roads be funded through an extra mill that the county could authorize the townships to levy on their taxpayers.

Zulski noted that under Dohm's approach, a township would not have to levy the additional mill and thus would not be subject to the votes of the 15 other townships in the county.

"And that's what I like with local money and local roads. It prioritizes, and if a township chooses not to make roads a priority, that's their choice. That's the taxpayers' and voters' right out there," he said.

Zulski said that if a township chooses to undertake and pay for road projects, the road commission will look at covering the engineering costs.

"The reality is going to be that if this all happens, we're not going to cover all the work. But we can help the township save a little money by saying, 'If you're going to go out for bids, we'll give you the plans.'"

Dohm said if the townships undertook the local road projects, he would hope to work with road commission staff in trying to come up with a "workable, do-able program," with cost efficiencies and priorities.

Zulski responded: "As a commissioner that's what I like to see. I want to see each project looked at separately. I don't think we can just have a cut format here. We've got guidelines to go by but we need to be flexible and work with the townships."

Dohm said he was encouraged with the progress made so far on his suggestion.

"There is some concern of distrust as to how that extra mill is going to be spent. We've got to overcome that or we're not going to get there. The option is each township levying their own request which is cumbersome, unnecessary and costly for everybody involved."

Zulski agreed. "You're going to have 16 different types of ideas. As far as trust goes, I hope that can be built. Currently the county taxpayers trust the county board as far as what's allocated and what's levied. And the county board has been excellent; they don't over-levy anything. They have a cushion there," he said.

Dohm added, "They've got a good track record. And so have the townships."